Fire-escape.



MQA D W. H. SMITH.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 27, 1912.

Patented Mar. 18, 1913.

2 SHEETSSHEET 1.

COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH cu.. WASHINGTON, D4 c.

' q/Vi Mwowo W. H. SMITH.

FIRE ESCAPE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 27, 1912.

1,056,747, Patented Mar. 18, 1913.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

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Snow-tow GUM/Mu COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH 60.,WAsHlNGTON, n. c.

UNITED sTATns PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM E. SMITH, 0F G-AYHEAD, NEW YORK;

FIRE-ESCAPE.

T 0 all whom it may concern I Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. SMITH, acitizen of the United States, residing at Gayhead, in the county ofGreene and State of Yew York, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Fire-Escapes, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to fire escapes and has for an object to providea fire escape in the nature of a casing having a slide pole and aplurality of internal landings so arranged as to catch and prevent aperson from falling to the bottom of the casing should they loose theirhold upon the slide pole.

A second object of the invention is to provide novel gates on thelandings to prevent more than one person at a time gaining aceess to theslide pole whereby to eliminate jamming and crowding.

A third object of the invention is to provide novel inclined guardtroughs extending from landing to landing and serving to catch personswho may loose their hold upon the slide pole.

lVith the above objects in view the invention consists of certain noveldetails of construction and combination of parts hereinafter fullydescribed and claimed, it being understood that various modificationsmay be made in the minor details of construction within the scope of theappended claim.

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this specification :Figure1 is a longitudinal sectional view through the fire escape. Fig. 2 is alongitudinal sectional view taken on the line 22 Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is across sectional view taken on the line 3-3 Fig. 1. Fig. 4L is a crosssectional view taken on the line M Fig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings in which like characters of referencedesignate similar parts, the fire escape is shown attached to a buildingside, designated in general by the numeral 10, there being doors 11opening through the side and facilitating entry from the various floors12 to the fire escape comprising the subject-matter of this invention.

The tire escape consists of an upright metal casing including a frontwall 13, and side walls 14 secured to the front wall by angle irons 15arranged at the corners, angle irons 16 being secured to the side wallsand fixed to the wall of the building in any preferred Specification ofLetters Patent.

Application filed February 27, 1912.

Patented Mar. 18, 1913. Serial No. 680,191.

manner. Angular brace rods 17 are secured to the sides of the casing andto the build ing and rigidly secure the casing thereto.

Arranged at intervals within the casing are short landings 18 whichextend from side to side of the casing. Leading downward from each ofthese landings is a short flight of stairs 19 of about one half thewidth of the landing, one side of the flight being secured to the sideof the casing, and a hand rail 20 and protecting screen 21 being securedto the free side of the flight. The flight terminates in a second shortL-shaped landing 22 a portion of which underlies the platform 18.

The stair structure described may be said to consist of an upperlanding, a lower landing and a short flight of stairs connect-ing bothlandings, the upper landing extending entirely across the casing fromside to side while the lower landing is L-shaped and has a portionunderlying one end of the upper landing. By referring now to Figs. 1 and2 it will be seen that extending from each lower landing of one stairstructure to the upper landing of the next underlying stair structure isan inclined trough 23. This trough performs the function of a guard tocatch persons falling from the slide pole intermediate the landings anddirecting the persons to the foot of the slide pole onthe nextunderlying upper landing.

Formed in each L-shaped landing 22 in that portion thereof underlyingthe related upper landing is a manhole 2st. Extending vertically fromtop to bottom of the casing is a slide pole 25 which extends throughsuitable openings formed in all of the upper landings 18 and extendsthrough the manholes 24 of all of the lower or L-shaped landings 22. Thepole is disposed within convenient reach of the door openings, it beingunderstood that the latter will be fitted with doors that swing into thecasing to facilitate access in minimum time to the pole. It can now beseen that a person entering the fire escape on any one of the landings18, may run down the related flight of stairs to the related L-shapedlanding 22 at the foot of the stairs, turn to the left on this landingand advance to the pole. The person may slide down the pole through themanhole to the next underlying upper landing 18, this procedure beingcontinued until the foot of the casing is reached. In this manner theescape of a person from the building will be divided into alternatestages of sliding down the pole and running down the steps from landingto landing of each stair structure. Thus crowding of the pole isprevented with resultant avoidance of jamming of persons in the bottomof the casing when great numbers are endeavoring to escape by the fireescape. The stair structures need not be placed at every floor of thebuilding, it being only necessary to dispose any particular number ofthe stair structures within the casing that will attain the desired end.

For preventing access of more than one person at a time to the pole, Iarrange a gate 26 on each L-shaped landing, one end of the gate beingsecured to the screen of the landing, and the free end extending betweenthe pole and adjacent side of the casing, and being spaced from thelatter sufficiently to permit of but one person passing between the freeend of the gate and the wall at a time. By virtue of this novelarrangement of stairs, landings at the top and bottom thereof, and gateson the bottom landings, crowding and jamming of persons about the poleon the landings is positively prevented.

For promoting uniform gravitating of a person on the pole, I provide anendless chain 27 one side of which is housed by a pipe 28 which extendsvertically within the casing, and the opposite side of which is looselyengaged through openings 29 formed in all of the upper landings 18 andthrough the man-holes of the L-shaped landings 23. The bight at theupper end of the chain is trained over an idler 30 arranged between thespaced sides 31 of a governor frame which will be presently described,the bight thence being trained over a drum 32 and thence over an idler33 as clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. A person sliding the pole graspsthe chain in the hands and during the resultant downward pull upon thechain as the person gravitates down the pole, the drum 32 will berotated. The drum is equipped with a gear 34: which meshes with a pinion35 carried upon a stub shaft 36 which is equipped with a gear 37. Thelatter meshes with a gear 38 carried upon a governor shaft 39, thegovernor being of a bell variety and operating to shift a flangefriction disk 40 longitudinally upon the shaft. A brake rod 11 isrigidly fixed to the outer side of the governor frame and is equippedwith a shoe 42. During excessive weight upon the exposed side of thechain, the governor balls will tend to spread and draw the friction diskinto operative engagement with the brake shoe, the friction thusincreasing as the weight upon the chain increases so that the chain hasuniform movement regardless of the weight thereupon.

As a means of exit fron the fire escape, I hingedly secure a flight ofstairs 43 to the outer or front wall of the casing near the lower endthereof, a weighted cable at being attached to the stairs and trainedover a sheave 45 arranged on the front wall of the casing, this cablenormally holding the stairs rocked upwardly into released position butpermitting of the stairs being manually moved to operative position in aminimum time and with minimum labor. In emergencies, where it is notpossible to use the stairs, a supplementary exit is provided in thenature of a U-shaped trough 16 which is secured to one side of thestairs, and into which a person may jump and slide to the ground whendesired.

For cooling the casing during hot fires, I provide a spray pipe 17having avalve controlled feed pipe 48 which leads to a reservoir 49, thespray pipe being adapted to sprinkle and dampen the walls of the casingupon the valve of the feed pipe being opened.

What is claimed, is

A fire escape including a vertical casing, a slide pole within andextending approximately from top to bottom of said casing, a pluralityof short flights of steps arranged in superposed position on one side ofsaid casing, a substantially L-shaped landing at the bottom of eachflight coacting with the flight in forming a closure in the casing, allof said Lshaped landings being formed with alined manholes receivingsaid slide pole, a landing at the top of each flight extending from sideto side of the casing and receiving said slide pole, and preventingcontinuous passage of a person down said slide pole from the L-shapedlanding next above to the L-shaped landing next below said landing, anda gate on each L-shaped landing extending from the foot of the relatedflight of steps toward said slide pole and havingthe free end so spacedfrom the side of said casing nearest to said pole as to prevent thepassage of but one person at a time around the free end of the gate tosaid pole.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature, in the presence of tWowitnesses.

WILLIAM H. SMITH.

Witnesses LEWIS BETTS,

EDWIN C. HALLENBEGK.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. C.

